Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter
Customer Review: FINELY GROUND COFFEE + PLASTIC INSERT = PERFECT CUP OF JOE
Summary: 4 Stars
UPDATED on 9/19/09
Now that I've had the Kuerig B-40 and My K-Cup Filter for a couple of weeks, I wanted to update my review to say that Finely Ground Coffee + Plastic Insert (see below) = Perfect Cup of Joe. I've learned that in order to get the perfectly rich, full-bodied cup of joe that our family prefers, we need to use a fine-grind coffee. Also...contrary to my comment below, you CAN effectively use the larger mug button (9.25 ounces) IF you use a finely ground bean/coffee. I am using the larger mug button for hot joe, and the small cup button (7.25 ounces) if I plan to throw ice into the brew.
So, what kinda coffee works for us? We found that the Melitta canned coffees fit the bill, as does Gevalia. They're both ground finer than your average pre-ground coffee. If you're into grinding your own beans (in a supermarket, let's say), turn the grind preference so that it sits between fine grind and espresso. The bottom line is this: the finer the grind, the more flavorful the coffee. Now that I've figured out the secret to serving a perfect cup of coffee - using MY beans/coffee - I wouldn't give this machine/filter up for the world. It truly is a terrific combo. Still, because of all of the jury rigging required (see below), I can't in all good conscience give the filter 5 stars. I mean, seriously, Keurig...get with the program and redesign the My K-Cup Reusable Filter so that it works perfectly, straight out of the box.
PREVIOUSLY WRITTEN on 9/13/09:
My husband is the big coffee drinker in the household, so I thought the Keurig B-40 would make a nice birthday gift. Call me stunned, however, when I discovered just how much it would cost for him to wash back his usual 8-10 cups of java a day with Keurig's K-cups! That's when I said, "No dice!" to the notion of a Keurig K-cup system. Once I heard about Keurig's My K-Cup, that's when I decided to give the machine another chance.
My initial reaction to the coffee produced by My K-Cup mirrored the complaints of many here: that the resulting brew is inordinately weak. But after making some substitution to the type of grounds we use, and by jury rigging the device (as recommended by several savvy posters), I've come up with a very good cup of java.
For starters, I use the base of a previously used K-cup (trimmed of it's paper filter, foil top, and plastic rim) to line the plastic holder that the My K-Cup metal filter sits in. That solution does indeed reduce the speed of the water running through the grind, allowing it to produce a somewhat stronger brew.
Next, I did away with any notion of actually ever using Keurig's button for the larger cup size. All that button will do is water down the coffee further.
But even with the plastic liner and smaller cup size, we found that the coffee was still not quite to our personal preference. We happen to like a richer and bolder drink than we were getting out of the My K-Cup. Close, but no cigar...not yet, anyway.
At this point, I began playing with coffee...testing out different varieties and grinds. I learned from a local barista that the grind is determined by the type of filter we're using. Since it's a metal filter here, she recommended I go with a finer grind. That advice, coupled with a bolder Sumatran bean, did the trick.
I'm no coffee connoisseur. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And I'm also one of those who likes a flavored Hazelnut coffee. My solution, though scandalous by coffee purist standards, is to go 50-50 with Hazelnut and Sumatran grinds.
Specifically, and for a BIG mug of coffee (one of those tall travel thermoses), I brew an 8 oz. My K-Cup with Starbucks Sumatra decaf, and then brew another 8 oz. My K-Cup with either Melitta Hazelnut (already ground on the finer side) or Dunkin' Donuts Hazelnut (ground for the metal filter).
The richness of the darker Sumatran really boosts up the flavor of the light Hazelnut bean. Being that I use a decaf Sumatra(not noticeable, by the way), I'm reducing jitters with this 50/50 blend.
The bottom line is that with some improvisation (the reason I'm not giving this product 5 stars), I'm able to get a really fast, really great single serving of joe.
Customer Review: Fantastic IF you take a few initial steps
Summary: 3 Stars
The Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter will let you make a great cup of coffee using your own coffee instead of the expensive pre-packaged K-cups. However, in order to get decent results you need to take a few initial steps.
First, and most important, you need to adjust the gasket on your Keurig machine. If you look up under the lid at the "nail" (the sharp water spout that punctures the commercial K-cups), you'll see a black rubber gasket around it. PULL THAT DOWN about a centimeter (don't pull it all the way off). This gasket provides the seal necessary to prevent the pressured water from squirting out the top of the K-cup. The filter assembly sits a bit lower than commercial K-cups, so it doesn't make good contact with the gasket, causing hot water to leak and splash onto the counter and into your coffee. Pulling the gasket down will prevent this from happening. Doing this once will be sufficient for subsequent uses of the filter (the filter assembly will push the gasket back up the "nail" to the optimal position), but you may need to do it again after using a commercial K-cup (you can test it with an empty filter to see if it splashes so that you don't waste coffee if it does). THIS SHOULD BE IN THE MANUAL, under troubleshooting if nothing else. I found out by calling Keurig customer support. If you do not experience splashing or leaking then you may not need to do this step.
Second, as mentioned elsewhere, you may want to insert the outer sleeve of a used commercial K-cup inside the filter housing (outside the filter) in order to provide a smaller exit hole for the water and thus give the hot water more time to brew a stronger cup of coffee. Simply use an X-acto or sharp blade to cut around the rim of a used K-cup (just under where it gets wider at the top). The top of the K-cup should come away with the paper filter intact, leaving you with the bottom part of the K-cup with the needle puncture. Slide this into the filter assembly and you are all set. It should hug the wall of the filter assembly and the filter will fit easily inside it. Kind of a pain, but you only have to do it once.
Third, you may want to use a finer grind of coffee. I haven't experimented too much with this, so I don't know how fine is too fine for the mesh, but I've noticed that some of the pre-ground coffee we have that has a coarser grind makes a much weaker cup in the Keurig, even with the used K-cup sleeve inserted. However, the coffee we have with a finer grind makes a cup that's more consistent with what we get in our regular machine.
Some other things you should know:
After brewing, you simply remove the filter assembly and rinse it out. I recommend running warm water into the hole in the top at first to bring down the temperature of the grounds and any water remaining inside. Then, unscrew the top and rinse out the filter and the assembly, and you're ready for your next cup. I've found that it's easier to rinse the filter if I ONLY rinse it from the outside (turn it on its side and turn it under a strong stream of water, letting the grounds run out the top). Running water into the top of the filter tends to push the grounds into the mesh, requiring additional/stronger rinsing from outside to dislodge them.
As mentioned elsewhere, the filter assembly is designed to go in the place of the spout assembly that comes with your Keurig machine. For this reason (along with the gasket issue), this is not an ideal solution for those that want to switch back and forth a lot between home ground coffee and commercial K-cups.
The filter basket can accommodate about 2.5 tablespoons of coffee. There are little marks on the inside of the filter for each tablespoon.
Although it took some initial troubleshooting and experimenting, I'm now able to get as consistent a cup of coffee using my own grounds as I ever was using my regular coffee maker and I'm very happy with it. I'd give it five stars except for the following: I took one off for the fact that going back and forth between regular K-cups and the filter is a bit of a hassle, and I took another off for the fact that I had to take apart a K-cup in order to overcome a design flaw.
Customer Review: Three reasons the Pod Holster is better than My K-Cup
Summary: 2 Stars
The Pod Holster (Perfect Pod Holster Use Any Pod in Your Keurig Coffee Maker - Over 10,000 Sold), which is not made by Keurig, makes a good cup of coffee in a Keurig machine using third-party coffee pods priced at less than half the cost of K Cups. There is almost no clean up as the used pods come out as neatly self-contained little buttons. Also, there is very little waste other than the pod's simple paper filter and the grounds.
But is it a better product than the "My K-Cup" filter? As much as I rely upon the "My K-Cup" filter, I say definitively and emphatically, "Yes".
First, the Pod Holster fits most Keurig machines. The "My K-Cup filter" assembly doesn't! We have a Keurig brewer in my office where we are charged $1.00 per cup. Unfortunately for me, many "professional" Keurig models have a little "lip" that prevents you from inserting their filter assembly into their machine. This design feature means that I can't bring my favorite home-ground coffee and tea into work. On the other hand, the Pod Holster has virtually the same dimensions as a K-Cup so that it will fit inside any Keurig machine, save the B100. In the case of the B100, the coffee drawer slides out instead of dropping down. The Pod Holster has a slightly thicker lid than a real K-Cup, so the clever engineers at Kuerig found a way to prevent you from sliding the imposter brewing cup into their machine.
Second, the Pod Holster is easier to use and less fragile than the "My K-Cup filter" assembly. Keurig's design requires that you remove a part (with a big sharp needle in the bottom) from your coffee maker, and insert a fragile filter housing in its place. With normal daily usage, tightening the housing lid, even gently, breaks the threads on housing body and renders it useless; I've gone through three of them, so far. In comparison, the Pod Holster cap is sealed with a small thin silicon gasket. The gasket will probably break eventually, but after a year of daily use, the holster is still working well.
Third, the Pod Holster makes a rich cup of coffee using non-Keurig pods. "My K-Cup filter" can, but poorly. Even with a basketfull of grounds, the water injected into the K-Cup filter will flow through or around the coffee with little brewing exposure, making for a weak cup of coffee. If the grounds are sitting in a pod in the filter, most of the water flows around the pod and through the filter screen. The secret to the Pod Holster's success is that it has a little spring tamper that pushes the pod to the top of the unit, forcing the Keurig water insertion needle to pierce the pod. All the hot water goes through the pod's coffee and filter.
The Pod Holster is not perfect. The tamper spring sometimes falls into the trash when I eject my used pod, and sometimes there are grounds that flow around the puncture point in the pod. Most notibly, I can't put my own ground coffee or tea into it. So, if you like to grind your own coffee, then get a K-Cup filter -- or make your own pods; Amazon carries a kit Make Your Own Keurig Kcup Perfect Pod Kit Holster and Maker for under $50. Other than that, I can't think of anything I don't like about the Pod Holster. I have purchased four of these babies: one for home and three for the office. At work they have been stolen off my desk!
Final recommendation: Buy the Perfect Pod Holster and subscribe to Amazon's Senseo Douwe Egberts Coffee Pods, Variety Pack, 16-Count Packages (Pack of 4). That's 64 cups of coffee for under $20.00!
Customer Review: How to use the My-K-Cup successfully
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the My K-Cup at Target yesterday for my wife's birthday. Once we set up the new Keurig and tried a number of the little, and expensive, K-Cups it was time to try the My K-Cup. First, I went online to read some reviews. I was disappointed to see so many negative reviews, but there were some very positive reviews also. That usually tells me there is a learning curve to using a device, sometimes people go online and blast a product before they take the time to learn how to use it properly.
There were two comments that caught my eye - the K-Cup holder in the Keurig comes out easily and you should slide the rubber washer around the needle down slightly to prevent water from splashing out.
The K-Cup holder does come out easily, but I found it's much easier if you start from the top where the little arrow is and gently push down toward your body. Once the top is released, it's much easier to wiggle the holder free from the two tabs at the bottom.
I also noticed that the little mesh filter inside the My K-Cup is quite small. I put 1 level tablespoon inside the mesh filter and decided that's probably all it could handle. The cup is about 2/3 full at that point, which gives the grounds some room to move around. When you run the Keurig it shoots hot water into the grounds making a tunnel down the center and pushing the grounds to the side and up. If you put too many grounds in the filter they have nowhere to go and will create too much pressure at the top of the cup - which I think is why people complain about water leaking everywhere.
From that point it's very easy to twist the top back onto the My K-Cup and place it in the Keurig. I only tried the 10 oz. fill.
We used our normal Maxwell House pre-ground coffee. I'm happy to report that we never knew that this brand of coffee could be so good. Granted, not quite as good as the excellent coffee from some of the K-Cups, but better than from a drip coffee maker. And, you have the benefit of not wasting a 1/2 pot of unused coffee.
Clean up is a snap, just remove the My K-Cup from the Keurig, untwist the top (it will be hot if you do this immediately after making coffee) and rinse out the cup and mesh filter in the sink. If you have a septic tank and field system you should dump most of the grounds in the garbage first. For normal municipal water and sewage systems it's fine to dump them down the drain. They won't harm your disposer and won't clog your drain unless you already have very slow drains.
We made three successive cups the first time we used the My K-Cup and didn't lose a drop of water to leakage. From the design of the system, I believe you will also be successful if you follow these few tips.
If you want much stronger coffee, you might try increasing the amount of grounds - very slightly, use stronger coffee grounds, or just make a smaller cup of coffee. If you don't mind it being a little weak, there's no reason you couldn't run it twice with the same grounds. Just lift the top open, close it again and restart.
Overall, the My K-Cup can work fine for you and it will help you save a ton of money, making the usefulness of the Keurig much more attractive and environmentally friendly.
Customer Review: After a few modifications - I LOVE IT!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first review I have ever written at Amazon. I use Amazon reviews all the time to help me decide whether or not to purchase something...but always seem to forget to go back and make a review after a purchase...but I just had to this time!
I got my Keurig a few days ago and I bought the reusable coffee filter as well. I have seen the Keurigs for quite some time but thought that was an expensive way to enjoy a single cup of coffee...then I saw the filter and thought I love that concept. I am the only one in my house that drinks coffee and I have a small 5 cup coffee maker that 1/2 of the pot gets thrown down the drain every day after I have my morning coffee. In fact there are times when I would love to have an afternoon cup but feel it is wasting money to make a whole pot for my afternoon cup (and I have tried doing half pots and it just doesn't come out the same!)
So I thought this was genius! I get to enjoy my favorite coffee one cup at a time whenever I want.
So I got it home and the first night had one of the k-cups that came with the machine...very very very good coffee!! Loved it! Couldn't wait until the next morning to try it out with my favoite coffee right now - Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Spice!
Well I set up my little filter, put my coffee in and was so very disappointed when I went to take a drink and it tasted just a tad over hot water - YUCK!! (and I am not a strong coffee drinker...I like mild coffees...but this was colored water!! - YUCK!!)
So I got on Amazon and started reading the reviews and doing research. I found I was not the only one...many people have the same problem and I read all the different solutions. The solution that made the most sense was the ones that said they got a coffee grinder and ground their coffee very fine. This made the most sense. I did some research and found out the finer the grounds the stronger the brew...espresso grounds are very fine! (In fact when I bought my grinder today it noted finer grounds for a stronger brew.)
I also opened one of the k-cups and inspected how they were made.
And here is what I finally came up with that gave me a very nice cup of coffee - probably better than it is from my coffee pot :-)
1) Re-grind your favorite coffee to a fine ground
2) put the plastic portion of a used k-cup (needs to be used because it has to have the hole punched out of the bottom) in the bottom of the my k-cup filter
2) put the mesh filter in next
3) put a cut down paper filter inside the mesh filter (not only helps the brewing of the coffee but also makes clean up easier - you just have to lift out the paper filter!)
4) fill the filter 3/4 full of the fine ground coffee (don't go any higher...just makes a mess)
Voila! A wonderful cup of coffee.
It is just a shame that you have to do all this to figure this out!! It seems that Keurig would get a better design so we wouldn't have to do this! But I will take these few steps because it is a lot cheaper than buying the k-cups!